our john harwood is live at the white house with more on that. john, good morning. >> good morning, carl. you know the president's been very clear since the election that republicans need to give on taxes for people at the top and not just on revenues, but also on tax rates because he says the math can't work otherwise. we've seen some signs of cracking in the republican unity. that suggests we may be getting to the next phase of negotiations. the latest sign was possible corker, the senator from tennessee, who was on our air just a few minutes ago, as you know, saying republicans should concede ground on top tax rates and then get on to other issues. >> the best place for republicans to be, to me, is to pass the rate of rate increases, be done with it, the numbers aprobably much smaller than is going to ultimately be negotiated, and then we still are focused on the right thing, which is entitlement changes. >> and that may be what john boehner and president obama are discussing yesterday, and in the days to come. because, speaker boehner needs s